Australian Trip
by DancingStar01
Summary: The team has to investigate in a haunted castle in Australia.


Title: Australian Trip  
Author: DancingStar  
Pairing: Doyle / Donner  
Rating: 12 (I guess...)  
Comments: My eleventh PSI Factor FanFiction... Wow! The spider and the part of the English and French royal family are fictional!  
Content: The team has to investigate in a haunted a castle in Australia.

_**Australian Trip **_

"Who is our contact person in this case, Anton?", asked Connor, when he drove the car on a highway. On her right already ranged the Coral Sea and Lindsay opened the window, breathing in the cool sea air. She had never been to Australia and so she was happy about the case. As far as Lindsay knew it was about a woman named Martha McDougal. She lived in an old castle, which was built by one of her ancestors. The castle was located at the ocean, in some remote vicinity of Townsville, a city in north Queensland. The mystery was that it was supposed to haunt in the castle. When Lindsay heard this, she thought she wouldn´t see kangaroos, koalas and not even the Ayers Rock.  
They reached the little castle on time and it still looked good. Meanwhile, the building had to be more than 200 years old.  
The mobile laboratory was parked next to the castle.  
When they got out they saw a middle-aged woman was waiting for them. She introduced herself as Martha McDougal, owner of this castle.  
"Leave your suitcases just in your car," suggested Martha, "We will pick it up later. Let's start with the guided tour before it gets dark." Martha was very excited.  
Through the documentation Lindsay knew Martha was born in Australia, studied history in London before she took her inheritance here on McDougal Castle, as her family called the castle. Martha´s daughter currently lived in Sydney, studying Marketing.  
In face of her excitement, Martha was a very reasonable person.  
"I'll show you my castle," offered Martha and opened a heavy wooden door for the team. They entered the building and found themselves in a huge hall.  
"If you look left, you see the large ballroom at the end of the corridor. If you would go to right, you come first in a room, which is now used as an office. This door leads in the corridor to the west wing... But let´s begin with the interesting part of the guided tour." Martha entered a wide staircase and the team followed her. They started the guided tour in a very long corridor. On the right side were windows, so the daylight could emphasize the expensive paintings, hanging on the left wall.  
"This is the corridor to the west wing on the first floor," said Martha, "The rooms on this floor are now all guest rooms. When the rooms were renovated five years ago, the architects and construction workers reported about strange phenomena and one day they even refused to work at night..." Martha laughed a little and she remained in front of an oil painting, what showed a bearded man, "This painting shows my great-great-grandfather Sir Everett McDougal. Sir Everett was the illegitimate son of Sir Edward Bowen, a very late descendant of the British King Henry VIII and as he would say, of a meaningless Scottish woman, who died at giving birth to her only child, so his father had to take the child with him. Sir Everett met his wife, a cousin of Marie Antoinette, in 1790 at the French royal court at her betrothal ceremony. Because Sir Everett was an illegitimate child of his father Sir Edward Bowen, his legitimate brother actually should marry Princess Therese. Sir Edward was believed if his legitimate son would marry the cousin of the Queen of France, he came to the crown. What just a few people knew was that Sir Edward belonged to an underground movement what tried to dethrone king and queen. According to tradition, first 15 potential heirs to the throne had to die before Princess Therese could be the queen. As I said before, Sir Everett met the princess at the French court and it was love at first sight. Of course Princess Therese knew she should marry Sir Edward's second son and the man had a very bad reputation, so the couple decided to elope with each other one night. They fled from Paris across the country to Calais and then by boat to Dover in England. Meanwhile, Sir Edward, found out his unwelcomed son Everett had eloped with the princess and so he sent out some bounty hunters. Sir Everett decided they were never safe, neither in England nor in France and Everett and his sweetheart finally moved to Australia. They went into exile."  
Martha stood in front of a painting which showed a beautiful blonde woman. Under the picture a small metal plate hung. "Princess Therese," was engraved on it.  
"The Sir and the princess came to Australia in 1791 and from the last money of his heritage, which the Sir could save he built himself and his wife this castle. They lived on without their titles of nobility. According to local history, they were regarded as a rich couple from Europe. Nobody knew they were descents form the English and French royal family. The princess and the Sir married, they were happy and they had six children..."  
Peter in the background bit back the comment that the Sir and the princess had been very busy.  
"...The children were all girls and although Sir Everett loved all his daughters, he of course wanted a boy who would take over house and home one day", Martha continued and showed them a picture of a family with father, mother and six children, "When Princess Therese was finally pregnant with her last child, she was already 47 years old. The oldest daughter Jeanne was already 17 years old and even married. The youngest children, the twins Princess Nadine and Princess Nicole were seven years old when a terrible misfortune came to the family: On a stormy night in the summer Princess Therese gave birth to a son but when the baby was born the doctor determined that its head and limbs were completely deformed. Frightened by the appearance of his son and heir, Sir Everett burnt the infant alive and ordered neither his family nor the attending physician were not allowed to talk about the malformed child ever again. The night after the birth Princess Therese was awakened by the sound of a crying baby. When she tried to leave her bed, she saw her deformed son sitting at the foot of her bed. He stared at her with his empty eyes. Princess Therese was outraged and in fear, the ghost of her dead child may appear again next night, she fell from the balustrade on the first floor. After his wife´s death Sir Everett retired, the other daughters were raised by a nanny and Sir Everett died in 1815 unhappy."  
With that, the guided tour in long corridor to the west wing was over and Martha and the team were now in front of a railing which offered a good view to another hall. They were now at the place where Princess Therese had taken her own life. The hall was a kind of large living room with lots of old, but beautiful furniture. The living room had a door which led into a beautiful garden.  
"As I said before, today's guest rooms have been used in the days of Sir Everett for a different purpose: At that time they were nursery rooms. When the construction workers were renovating the rooms, especially the room of the last child was haunted. One day a construction worker resigned, because he said he had seen the ghost of a deformed, naked infant sitting on the windowsill. In the girl´s rooms nothing happened so far. One year ago I hosted vacationers from New Zealand in my castle. It was a very nice family who told me one night, they heard noises in the hallway outside the bedrooms. They wanted to see the reason and they saw how the paintings in the hallway turned upside down by itself. The next morning I wanted to check my paintings... Guess what: nothing! Everything was as usual! Once, other guests saw the ghost of Princess Therese walking in the corridor up and down and she was calling for her husband", Martha lead them through the hallway, they entered a door and were now on one of the many roof terraces. They also had a good view to the sea. "Here, some tourists saw the ghost of Sir Everett McDougal. People say the Sir goes around at night, looking for the burning pyre of his son. After that the ghost goes through the wall and runs down the hallway to save his wife."  
"I ask you a question, Martha?", Anton suddenly asked and the woman nodded, "You actually believe these ghost stories?"  
Martha had no doubt. "It happened six weeks ago: I was sitting on a stormy night in the living room and read a book when I suddenly heard a scream on the balustrade. I looked up and saw Princess Therese. I knew it was Therese and she looked exactly like on the paintings in the corridor. With a loud cry she jumped from the railing and when she hit the floor, she suddenly disappeared. From then on I knew the guests had not dreamed. My great-great-grandmother had committed suicide."  
"But if no one was allowed to talk about the malformed child, how do you know that?", Anton's question was justified of course.  
"When the garden of rosary was moved 10 years ago, we found a deformed human skull. I assume the Sir was not able to burn the child completely and then he buried the remains in the garden. Then I asked a friend to examine the skull. We figured out it had to be the half burned head of a newborn male infant. Studies have shown it was from the early 1800 - years. As you may have noticed, the family picture is from 1809 and for a closer look Princess Therese was pregnant in the picture. When I also found her old diaries which I had to translate from French, it all fit together."  
Next, Martha suggested they should bring their equipment into the house. On the way to the car, Lindsay crossed the hallway with the paintings of the McDougal family. It was true: The picture which showed Sir Everett McDougal and his wife Therese with the six daughters was from the year 1809 and at the painting Therese was pregnant. If it was true what Martha told them, they would get something to see here!

When Martha brought Lindsay to her room, she was very surprised. From here, she could see the ocean and in the room was a huge canopy bed, which was carved out of mahogany wood. The bedding consisted of fine materials and there was even a fireplace in the room. Above the fireplace was a painting of McDougal Castle. Lindsay never had such a pretty room! "This was also one of the nursery room´s?", asked Lindsay when she placed her suitcase and went to the window. The room was on the same floor in which Martha told the story today, but on the other side of the balustrade.  
"No," replied Martha, "This was the room of Princess Therese."  
Suddenly, Lindsay had to swallow. This was the room in which Princess Therese had seen the ghost of the dead infant 200 years ago. Apparently Martha had read her thoughts.  
"Don´t worry," she said, "In this room the kid´s ghost never appeared. He is only haunted in his room."  
Lindsay was relieved. "Which of the McDougal-children was your relative?", she asked just out of pure interest.  
"Nadine McDougal was my great-grandmother," Martha smiled. Then she apologized. She had to go downstairs and tell the staff in the kitchen, what they should cook to dinner for the guests.  
Lindsay was left alone in the room and she put her clothes in the elaborately carved cupboard. Then she went downstairs to Connor, Peter and Cooper, who were in the living room. In the living room was a huge bookcase and Connor chose a particular book. "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle," he read, "Did you know he has been involved in ghost hunting? He wrote _The Hound of the Bakersvilles_, a very impressive story."  
Peter was interested in the railing. He wanted to investigate the building with a magnetometer and tonight he wanted to see the room of the dead infant. He wanted to be equipped with a camera and an infrared thermometer.  
"We are no ghost hunters," said Connor but he realized he had to clear up this case. Of course, he wasn´t a ghost hunter, but Martha McDougal asked Anton's friend and therefore also the OSIR for help to clear up the situation. Martha was not just about money. Some tourists left earlier because they thought they had seen a ghost, others booked trips to her castle because of the haunting.  
Of course Lindsay heard what he had said. "The whole castle looks very English," Lindsay said to him, "I don´t have the impression we are in Australia."  
Connor agreed. As they had seen, in the dining room also hung old paintings and on the wall in another hall hung even the old family coat from England. Sir Everett wanted at least the impression that he was in England.  
"Why not during daylight?", asked Cooper.  
"Are you scared?", Peter laughed a little bit.  
"No, but who knows what´s in there."  
Connor agreed with Cooper and together they went up the stairs again. They opened the door to the room and entered. They were in a beautifully decorated room. On the floor lay a soft carpet, there was also a four-poster bed and they had a good view on the garden. In contrast to the other rooms there were no flowers and no indoor plants. Lindsay noticed it. She also saw the thick layer of dust on the ground.  
"That's why no one entered this room for years. When the renovation was finished, it has only been rented for one time," a voice told them and they turned around. The voice belonged to Martha, who stood in the doorway and smiled friendly, "Even to the couple the ghost of the deformed infant appeared and they left the castle next day. Since then, no one has entered the room. Not even the maid."  
They left the room with Martha and went down for dinner in the dining room. Then they shared out at least magnetometers and infrared thermometers in the castle. The cameras would be installed tomorrow, because it was already too late.

It rained in the night and the rain tapped impatiently on the window. The wind whistled through the 200 year old walls, sounding like a howling ghost. Lindsay was huddled in the large canopy bed that once belonged Princess Therese, and listened. It thundered and lightened. Once it thundered very loud: A lightning had struck the lightning rod on the roof and she turned around weary. Something pricked in her left calf and suddenly she felt observed. A shadow at the end of her bed caught her attention. Once again she turned around and looked closer ... and has never been so quickly out of bed. Her brain took a moment until it processed that the ghost of a deformed, naked baby was sitting on the foot of the bed and staring at her. Her mouth opened and a panicky cry escaped her.  
Connor, Peter, Anton, Claire and Cooper in the surrounding rooms jumped also out of their beds, rushed to the door and then over the balustrade to Lindsay's room. Connor was the first who opened the door, switched on the lights and took care of Lindsay, who leaned on the cabinet, her face in panic. "Lindsay, what happened?", he asked gently and put his hands on her shoulders.  
"I saw him", her voice trembled, "He was sitting on my bed. The baby´s ghost…"  
Peter went back to the hallway to the magnetometer and the infrared device, which he had placed there. He passed Martha, who now also entered the room. Since Martha's bedroom was on the ground floor, she needed a little longer to get to Lindsay's room. When Lindsay saw her, she got up.  
"You said, the ghost has only appeared in his old nursery room!", she was beside herself. Tears welled in her eyes, but she tried to dominate. Lindsay was never so frightened!  
"That could mean, we are not dealing with a location-based ghost," said Cooper and all looked at him. Unbelievable he was interested, too, in other things than insects and reptiles! He just came along, because he was very interested in the fauna of Australia.  
"What is a location-based ghost? ", Martha asked confused and before Peter attaches to an answer, Cooper explained: "A Location-based ghost doesn´t perceive his environment. They don´t even know where they are and usually they aren´t dangerous. This ghost, however, is moving in the house. He is aware that he is haunted."  
"The magnetometer and the infrared device recorded nothing," said Peter disappointed and he prayed that they could quickly set up surveillance cameras tomorrow. Again they parted from each other and arrange to meet tomorrow morning, setting up the cameras immediately. Lindsay didn´t sleep that night...

The next morning after breakfast Peter immediately started to place monitoring cameras, while Martha showed Anton the Rose Garden, where the deformed skull of the last child has been found.  
They established their control center in Martha's office, which wasn´t needed in the next few nights. "How long do you actually stay?", asked Martha, when Connor arranged a screen.  
"We thought about three nights," said Connor and Cooper was disappointed. They didn´t even want to stay for one week. So he would have no opportunity to see alligators, platypus, koalas and collar lizards.  
It took almost all day until they had set up their equipment and checked if the camera had a good view at the paintings on the floor, the terrace, the nursery room and the balustrade. When it was night, Martha and the members of the team went to their rooms. Because of Connors advice, Anton took the book _The Hound of the Bakersvilles _from the living room.  
Cooper and Peter were the first team to monitor the castle on this night. They decided to join the security monitors at the VCR and walked through the dark castle. They first checked the paintings on the first floor hallway. The pictures were fine. "Cooper, I'm telling you, we don´t see one single ghost in the next few days. This is the so-called demonstration effect", said Peter, his flashlight flickered over the pictures on the wall. They walked to the end of the hallway, opened a heavy wooden door and then entered the terrace on which the ghost of Sir Everett used to appear. Today was a beautiful, clear night. The moon shone brightly and they didn´t need their flashlights. Peter checked the security camera, while Cooper went to the established flag next to a railing. He checked the motive of the flag: It showed the McDougal family crest. "If you are a bit imaginative, you might think from a certain distance, this flag is the ghost of Sir Everett", suspected Cooper and Peter nodded. Therefore, they would later go to the yard and see how the flag looked in fact like the outline of a ghost.  
They left the terrace, checked the infant´s nursery room, where it was also eerily quiet. Then they went into the living room, which was used as a library, too, and when everything was quiet, they went back to Martha's office to monitor the displays. The night was quiet, at least for them...

After something engraved into her wrist Princess Therese opened her eyes and sat up in her bed. She looked down at her hands and noted these were made of flesh and blood. She got up from her bed and looked at herself in a mirror. The woman in whose body her ghost was had shoulder-length blonde hair and beautiful blue eyes. She had a perfect figure and Therese was very happy with it. In her real life, Therese had green eyes and her hair was much longer, but that didn´t bother her. Therese took off her clothes and slipped into her long silk bathrobe. Whether she would find her husband? They already had separate bedrooms before, because husband and wife never shared the same bedroom on the royal court. But she wanted to know where he was.  
Before she went to the door, she noticed her castle had not changed much: the bed was still the same, but the carpet was new, the walls were painted more beautiful and next to the bed on a bedside table stood a small black box, showing 11:56 in red glowing letters.  
Princess Therese left the room, went two steps down the hall and opened the door to her husband´s room, Sir Everett. The door was never closed, and so even not today.  
In her husband's room lived now a very attractive, dark-haired man with gorgeous gray eyes. He seemed to be confused to see her this time and in his room. "Everett, don´t look at me like that," she begged him and smiled. And he smiled back.  
"Therese!", Everett hugged her, lifted her up and then he kissed her, "Dearest, I feared, I would never see you again. After your death, I..."  
Tenderly she put her finger on his mouth. "Don´t talk about that terrible time," she pleaded, "After 200 years, I have something better in my mind." She was more than 200 years separated from her husband and she had no sense to let it last longer.  
Again he smiled. He also wanted not to surrender anymore and he helped his princess out of her robe and took off his clothes. They went on an exciting journey, discovering each other completely new and this night was, as if to make up for the last 200 years and not miss a second of it.

When he awoke alone the next morning, Connor noticed immediately something was wrong. Connor had no idea how he had got out of his clothes, yesterday he went to bed fully dressed. And his pillow smelled strange. A mixture of vanilla and jasmine blossoms. The scent seemed familiar to him, but he could not assign. Connor thought nothing about it and was preparing himself for the day.  
After waking up alone and looking in the mirror, Lindsay noted that her neck was covered with red spots. She had no idea how this happened. So she took a shower, got dressed and when she left her room, she saw Connor and Anthon were helpless in front of a painting on the wall. "Good morning," she said to them, "Is something wrong?"  
Her question answers itself, when she saw the painting of Sir Everett McDougal was turned upside down. "As Martha reported, the pictures in the hallway were always right so far," said Anton, looking at her.  
"Perhaps it is the ghost of Sir Everett McDougal, who goes around in the corridor and wants to show us he´s here," Lindsay suggested.  
"The ghost of Everett McDougal used to appear on the terrace. Here in the hall it´s the ghost of Princess Therese. But why should she turn upside down the painting of her husband?"  
"Let´s go down and talk to Cooper and Peter," Connor suggested, "Maybe the two figured out something."

"What do you mean, you fell asleep?", Connor asked a little angry, as Cooper and Peter told him, they would have fallen asleep against midnight. Jet lag, they apologized. For some reason the camera that filmed the paintings had lost the connection at the same time and showed only a black screen. As it turned out, the cable had come loose.  
"Maybe you should drink some more coffee!", Connor complained and Anton told him it wasn´t their fault. Finally, the other cameras had recorded everything and they had all day to look at the videos.  
As it turned out, nothing exciting was on the videotape. As Peter said before: The demonstration effect.  
In some better mood Connor appeared with Lindsay at the dinner table.  
"Connor, I haven´t even asked in which room you spend the night?", Lindsay asked.  
"In Sir Everett´s room, towards yours. My room is not haunted by the way", he smiled. Connor knew that the team was joking about who spent the night in whose haunted room.  
"Hopefully tonight we see some ghosts," said Claire, "I would be angry if we´re here for nothing." Claire and Anton were now responsible for monitoring. After Martha and the team had retrieved at their rooms, they checked first the terrace, where the ghost of Sir Everett used to walk around. It wasn´t bit surprising when there was peaceful silence. It was also quiet in the hallway and Claire checked if the camera, which filmed the paintings, was working. They could not afford again such a faux pas like last night!  
Because the corridor was all normal, the two checked the nursery room then Anton and Claire went down into the living room. "A really nice house," Anton said softly to Claire.  
"Forget it, Anton! You would have to work for a long time until you can afford that."  
Anton grinned. That was true. Then he had an idea. "What do you think about tape recording?," he asked and Claire agreed. Anton pulled out a tape recorder and turned it on. "Are you the ghost of Princess Therese?", he asked and as he had expected, he received no answer. If he was lucky, they might hear the answer to this question later in the analysis of the tape.  
"Are you looking for your husband, Sir Everett?"  
No answer.  
Claire suddenly heard a noise on the dark balustrade. It wasn´t very loud but it was there.  
"Did you hear that?", asked Claire, "I heard a door open and close."  
"This could have been the wind." They stayed two minutes then Anton stopped the tape recording and they went back to the monitors.

The door what was heard by Claire was truly opened. It was the door to Lindsay's room and again in her floor-length silk robe, Princess Therese opened the door and closed it behind her. Under cover of darkness, she crept to the room next door. She knew her husband, Sir Everett, was already there, waiting for her.  
She greeted him with a radiant smile and he got up when she entered the room. "Dearest," she murmured and kissed him. Then she untied the knot of her bathrobe, let slip the piece of cloth to the ground and with her husband she fell back on the big four-poster bed. Therese regretted that tomorrow, perhaps was all over again, maybe she and Everett wouldn´t get another chance to love each other, so she didn´t want to remember how it was like to be without him.  
Two hours later, Therese was in Everett's arms and enjoyed his presence. "I love you, Therese," he whispered. This confession drove a shower through Therese. Would it really be like this, he wouldn´t have thrown her son on a pyre. Even if it was now 200 years ago, she didn´t know if she ever could forgive him.  
She got up and sat on the bed.  
"Don´t go," Everett said to his wife and raised his hand to caress the soft skin of her back, "I missed you so much, dear. I wish I could undo what I did to you and our son. Forgive me."  
Therese turned around and bent down to her husband to kiss him. "I love you, Everett," she whispered. And how she loved him! She never wanted to be separated from her husband, so she stayed all night...

Connor felt as if he had drunk too much alcohol last night. He felt dizzy and sick and something was different today than usual. He opened his eyes and saw a pretty blonde woman was lying in his arms. His heart skipped a beat: Lindsay! She was here in his room, in his bed and just as it looked like she was undressed. The trouble thing was that he couldn´t remember last night.  
Connor tried to get up, but at that moment she began to move and she wrapped her arms tightly around his body. He noted how nice it felt to hold her in his arms, but he knew it was wrong. Connor had to do something and wake her up before anyone saw them. He whispered her name and told her she should wake up.  
"Why?", she asked back, half asleep, opened her eyes and when she saw where she was, it was clear. She wrapped a blanket around her body and jumped up.  
"What are you doing here?" she asked, leaning against the cabinet.  
"Actually, this is my room," said Connor.  
"But how ...?",Even Lindsay couldn´t remember what happened last night, "Connor, please don´t get me wrong, but I can´t remember last night."  
"No, never mind. It´s just... That leaves the question of how it could come to it." He noted his pillow smelled again like vanilla and jasmine blossoms. Lindsay's perfume... So this wasn´t the first night they spent together.  
"Oh God," she murmured and suddenly her head dropped against the closet, "Martha said, however, the ghost of Princess Therese goes around at night in the hallway, looking for her husband. Perhaps her ghost slipped into me and you were..."  
She hadn´t to say more, Connor knew what she meant. Actually, thought Lindsay, it was a shame that she needed the ghosts of 200 years deceased lovers to find out she would love to remember a night with Connor. She had never dared to dream this would happen one day. He was a very responsible man and would never... For a moment she thought what to do if the feelings she developed for him, were only on one side. The two ghosts had used their bodies for their passionate love act, but they left a chaos of feelings. Disappointed, she looked for her robe.  
"Lindsay, I think we should keep that for us," suggested Connor, "Just forget it."  
This proposal was a slap in the face to Lindsay. She knew nothing would be as before. Nevertheless, she agreed. "Yes, just forget about it," she muttered and left.

Today was extremely difficult. After she said "goodbye" to Connor, she had literally locked herself in her room. At first she tried to rest then she had to think about what he had said. Actually it was a pity, what he thought about the whole thing. But it didn´t change the fact that Connor and Lindsay were the third and final team, which should keep eyes open on McDougal Castle.  
It was night and Lindsay stared tired at the monitors that were set up in front of her. A camera filmed in the large dining room, a second camera filmed the west wing corridor.  
Her eyes were always heavy, but then she noticed that a picture in the corridor of the West Wing was moving and was recorded by the camera. Suddenly, the picture had turned on its head. Sir Everett McDougal was suddenly upside down.  
"Connor!", Shocked she grabbed his arm and he was scared.  
"What?", he asked and she pointed to the surveillance monitor. He also saw that the painting was rotated by 180 degrees. "Move the camera to the left," he said and Lindsay followed his statement. Al paintings, even the paintings of the McDougal- Children were turned upside down now. The night vision camera panned to the left when they saw a tall figure.  
"Peter?", Lindsay was stunned, "He turns around the paintings?"  
She and Connor got up to go to Peter, who was still busy in the hallway with turning around the paintings. They watched him. "Is Peter sleepwalking?", asked Lindsay and Connor shrugged his shoulders. He once read sleepwalker's had the eyes open and that they were able to avoid obstacles, but they often stumbled. Affected people usually couldn´t remember sleepwalking next morning.  
"It´s important that we remove him from the stairs somehow," said Connor. Peter was close to the stairs. Connor wondered if he should just grab after Peter's arm and draw him away from the stairs, but he didn´t know if that could cause a trauma.  
"What?", Lindsay asked when she noticed, as he thought, "you said, he has to remove."  
A creaking noise suddenly caught her attention. "The magnetometer!," said Lindsay almost a little shocked. A sure sign of ghost activity!  
Behind them, a door opened and they discovered Martha. "I heard noises," she justified.  
"Is this a secret elevator?", asked Connor and Martha nodded. When she left the elevator and let this go down, the magnetometer calmed. Now Martha also discovered how Peter turned around the paintings and the stairs came closer and closer.  
"Watch out! He rushes down the stairs!", she cried suddenly, Connor dove forward, grabbed Peter's arm and pulled him away from the stairs at the last moment.  
"What the hell is going on here?", asked Peter confused.

They examined Peter in the mobile lab and he reacted in horror, as Connor showed him the video tape on which he turned upside down the paintings in the hallway on the first floor. Lindsay expressed the suspicion that Peter was perhaps responsible for the Haunting on McDougal Castle.  
"I'm not a sleepwalker", Peter was pretty sure. There was no sense Peter was the reason for the haunting. After all, the mystery phenomena in the castle were here before Peter...  
"Maybe you haven´t noticed," said Anton. He didn´t believe that Peter was actually a sleepwalker. They were so often together, they would have noticed.  
Suddenly the door opened and Cooper came in. He looked happy and showed them a transparent bag, in which a spider was packed. "This is what I have just found in Peter's room", he had two more bags in which were also spiders. He had found the two other spiders in Doyle´s and Donner´s room, as he explained.  
"The spiders are alive?", said Martha shocked Cooper and shook his head.  
The spiders Cooper had found were huge and hairy and damn disgusting.  
"I fear I found the reason for the haunting. And it's half as spectacular as you thought", said Cooper.  
"A spider?", asked Lindsay.  
"Yes, the genus is called The Green Eye and it actually lives in Africa," Cooper said, "It was probably introduced into the country by illegal animal traders. Their poison paralyzes its victims in the animal kingdom right now, when humans are involved they immediately suffer on hallucinations and sleepwalking-like state. Some of the victims also report they can´t remember the hallucinations."  
"True," agreed Peter.  
"The poison is still a few days in the blood of the victims. I´ve always studied Peter´s blood. I have also studied Anton´s and Claire´s blood and you have also been bitten", said Cooper, "I still get blood by Connor and Lindsay for investigation... I would say, Martha, you have a spider infestation in your castle."  
"But if it's true that the guests turn upside down the paintings in their hallucinations... Why is everything fine in the they morning?", asked Martha.  
"Maybe there were more people walking around at night and they turned the pictures right again," suggested Claire.  
Lindsay crossed her arms over her chest disappointed. She did not know why she was so sad. Maybe it was because she and Connor could not remember the last nights, or if it was because it had happened when they were both bitten by a spider. She wished she could remember at least a little about it... Lindsay shook her head and walked away.  
"What´s wrong with her?", asked Peter, when he saw Lindsay leaving.  
For a moment, Connor thought about if he should run after her, but he stayed here in the lab. After all, he had no idea what to say. Should he apologize to her because he had slept with her? Maybe then she would give him a slap and Connor thought he had deserved this kind of answer. He had used it, the spider had bitten her. On the other hand, they were BOTH not of the situation, they had no control. They were not themselves... He also shook his head. The "We were not ourselves" -story was no good idea for an excuse possibility.  
"What's going on?", asked Peter, who now noticed that Connor acted like Lindsay.  
"This is our business," Connor was surprised that he was so calm. Once again, he wondered if he should run after her. Finally Connor decided he had to think about how it should now go now with them.

They planned to leave next day. In the courtyard of the castle Claire, Cooper, Peter and Anton were busy with their equipment in the mobile lab. When they were ready and wanted to drive off, Anton noted that Connor was not here. "I'm looking for him," said Lindsay. Since yesterday she had not talked to Connor, but what to say? She could not teach him she wished she could remember.  
She walked up a narrow staircase that led to a further roof terrace. From there they had excellent view of the Coral Sea and the cliffs. Today the sun was shining but the wind was cool.  
Connor stood on the roof and watched as the waves smashed against the rocks. The sea roared and he tried to think about the last days.  
Suddenly he heard footsteps on the stairs and he half-turned. It was Lindsay, who was standing in under a stone arch and she wondered if she should come to him. "Hey," his voice was very quiet, but he was glad to see her.  
"We are ready," she said and came a little closer, "So ... The equipment is stowed in the car and we can leave." Lindsay was a little nervous. She wanted to leave, as Connor decided to forget the beautiful panorama that was offered by the coast and he came to her. They met at about the middle of the terrace and she stopped breathing when he was directly in front of her.  
"The point is," Connor began, "I really don´t know where to start. I can´t understand how the poison of a spider can bring us so confused, that we both sleep with each other!"  
"It's okay," she said, trying not to sound disappointed, "Just forget it. The spider's fault." So she only repeated what he had said before.  
"What?", asked Connor, then he realized she totally misunderstood. "I'm not good which such things," he said, holding her back. He didn´t want her to leave. "What I meant to say is: It is a pity that I can´t remember. We should...", Connor drew her to him and noticed how she gasped for air nervously.  
"Don´t get me wrong, but I would like to remind you and our nights."  
She was surprised by these confession and she couldn´t prevent smiling. She hadn´t expected this and she had never believed Connor wanted to remember their nights. She searched frantically for an answer, but she laid her hands on his shoulders, looked at him and suddenly she kissed him. He was so gentle, as if to convince himself that she really wanted it. And how she wanted! His hands on her waist were enough to get mixed up. How it may felt to be touched by him everywhere? She couldn´t stop kissing him and she had to smile.  
Meanwhile, asked Peter where Lindsay was. It couldn´t take so much time to find Connor! He sent Anton now upstairs and when he arrived at the top of the stairs and on the rooftop terrace, he saw how Connor and Lindsay were kissing each other affectionately. Anton decided he would not bother. So he turned on his heel and walked back down the stairs.  
'`Could not find them," he apologized to Peter and suggested to wait a moment.  
Lindsay broke the kiss only reluctantly. "We should go... Maybe they´re waiting for us..."  
Connor nodded and his hands slid from her waist. When they walked together to stairs, he murmured a soft "You´re right… unfortunately" in her ear and she promised him the following night.  
"This is a wonderful offer, my beautiful princess."  
She looked at him quizzically, when she heard this, but when he laughed, she knew it was just a joke. With a wink he said "Just kidding". Together they walked to the stairs. Maybe the team was waiting for them...

Fin


End file.
